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    Absurd Theatre

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    Sizwe Bulelwa Makhanya
    The Theatre of the Absurd was a dramatic movement from the 1950s to the late 1980s that explored through plays the idea that life is inherently meaningless and humans cannot control their fates. Some prominent absurdist playwrights included Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Harold Pinter, and Tom Stoppard. Absurdist plays typically featured unconventional plots, characters reacting absurdly, and challenged audiences' understanding of narrative norms.

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    Absurd Theatre

    Uploaded by

    Sizwe Bulelwa Makhanya
    6 views2 pages
    The Theatre of the Absurd was a dramatic movement from the 1950s to the late 1980s that explored through plays the idea that life is inherently meaningless and humans cannot control their fates. Some prominent absurdist playwrights included Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Harold Pinter, and Tom Stoppard. Absurdist plays typically featured unconventional plots, characters reacting absurdly, and challenged audiences' understanding of narrative norms.

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    The Theatre of the Absurd was a dramatic movement from the 1950s to the late 1980s that explored through plays the idea that life is inherently meaningless and humans cannot control their fates. Some prominent absurdist playwrights included Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Harold Pinter, and Tom Stoppard. Absurdist plays typically featured unconventional plots, characters reacting absurdly, and challenged audiences' understanding of narrative norms.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    6 views2 pages

    Absurd Theatre

    Uploaded by

    Sizwe Bulelwa Makhanya
    The Theatre of the Absurd was a dramatic movement from the 1950s to the late 1980s that explored through plays the idea that life is inherently meaningless and humans cannot control their fates. Some prominent absurdist playwrights included Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Harold Pinter, and Tom Stoppard. Absurdist plays typically featured unconventional plots, characters reacting absurdly, and challenged audiences' understanding of narrative norms.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    The Theatre of the Absurd was a dramatic movement in Europe from the 1950s to the late

    1980s. Evolving from the emerging philosophical theory of Existentialism, Theatre of the
    Absurd explored through a dramatic lens the central idea that life was inherently
    meaningless and humans were fundamentally incapable of controlling their fates in a harsh
    and uncaring universe. Theatre of the Absurd had a profound impact on the modern
    theatrical landscape, and many of the plays associated with the movement are still highly
    regarded and frequently performed today.

    Rufus and Georges Wilson in Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, directed by Otomar
    Krejca, 1978.

    Rufus & Georges Wilson in Waiting for Godot, 1978

    Absurdist Playwrights

    Although Theatre of the Absurd was never a formal movement, there are many playwrights
    that scholars and critics refer to as absurdist due to the shared characteristics of their
    writings and the ideas explored therein. Prominent absurdist playwrights include French
    writers Jean Genet and Eugene Ionesco, French-Russian writer Arthur Adamov, British
    writers Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard, and Irish writer Samuel Beckett.

    Theatre of the Absurd: Background

    The Theatre of the Absurd finds its roots in Existentialism, a form of philosophical thought
    that posits human beings do not have any intrinsic purpose other than what they make for
    themselves. While the origins of Existentialism were laid in the 19th century by philosophers
    such as Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, it first appeared in the cultural
    mainstream during the opening half of the 20th century, primarily through the work of Jean-
    Paul Sartre, often considered to be the first modern existentialist. The world had recently
    emerged from the savagery and death of World Wars I and II and was struggling to reconcile
    its preexisting moral and political beliefs with the painful reality of the inhumanity it had just
    experienced. Existentialists argued that any notions of divine or rational moralistic purpose
    were unfounded. The individual alone was responsible for determining how to act in an
    intentional and meaningful manner.

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    Theatre of the Absurd: Characteristics

    The Theatre of the Absurd examines the fundamental absurdity of choosing to live one's life
    normally when confronted with an uncaring and meaningless universe. Absurdist plays
    recontextualize these two aspects of existence, presenting the characters as either behaving
    routinely in absurd situations, behaving absurdly in routine situations, or any combination of
    the two. While Theatre of the Absurd is, by definition, absurd, themes of futility, anxiety and
    isolation are commonly present throughout these works, and much critical discussion is still
    dedicated to studying and interpreting these plays.

    Plot in Absurdist Plays

    Plays belonging to the Theatre of the Absurd typically function as demonstrations of


    traditional human rationality and expectation gone awry. They often begin from the point of
    familiarity for the audience, such as Estragon and Vladimir's evocation of the classic
    vaudevillian double-act in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot or the use of the
    preestablished Shakespearean characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Tom
    Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. This establishment of familiarity is then
    either immediately or steadily subverted, challenging the audience's understanding of
    theatrical and narrative norms and confronting them with a dramatic representation of life's
    inherent absurdity.

    Theatre of the Absurd actively rejects conventional notions of narrative, opting instead for
    chaotic and seemingly nonsensical plots. Characters may react to certain statements or
    events with uncharacteristic levity or gravity or disregard cause-and-effect altogether. Time
    and space are typically mutable, ill-defined, or absent. Many plays are cyclical, ending at the
    same place they began, such as in the case of Eugene Ionesco's The Bald Soprano or Samuel
    Beckett's Waiting for Godot, with all preceding action either disregarded, forgotten, or
    rendered irrelevant by the production's conclusion. Other plays follow the conventional
    dramatic structure of action rising to a climax. However, the reasons for these rising actions
    are often unclear or actively inscrutable, such as in Eugene Ionesco's The Chairs and Harold
    Pinter's The Birthday Party. By the narrative's conclusion, the audience is typically left with a
    sense of uncertainty, prompting them to examine their own lives for examples of absurdity
    and existential confusion.

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